Dutch people murdered abroad in 2016 already equals last year

By Janene Pieters on April 14, 2016 - 09:25

Only four months into the year and already the number of Dutch murdered abroad is equal to that of the entire 2015. Five Dutch were killed abroad in the first quarter of this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to AD.nl.

So far this year two Dutch were murdered in Costa Rica, one in the Dominican republic, one in Iraq and and one in Burkina Faso. The three Dutch killed in the terrorist attacks in Brussels are not included in these figures.

"If the trend continues, this year may have the highest number of homicides in years", the Ministry said to the newspaper.

In many cases the murders are never solved. This is partly due to the police being swamped with work in many countries - in Rio de Janeiro, for example, the police have to deal with dozens of murders committed every week. This leads to frustration for victims' friends and family. Foreign Affairs tries to help as much as possible, but can not interfere with a police investigation.

With murder investigations dragging out, it often happens that victims' bodies are only released after some time. In such cases it is often difficult to get bodies repatriated to the Netherlands. If the body is in an advance state of decomposition, countries consider the health risk to airport and airline staff too high.